The concern was once a leading underwriter of initial public offerings.

The industry's leading underwriter had record profits last year, and 1993 has been another busy year for Wall Street so far.

Rothschild prospered in the 1980's as a leading underwriter of high-technology stocks.

Still, Merrill Lynch remained the leading underwriter of both debt and equity securities.

But Merrill was also a leading underwriter of Orange County bonds.

Recently, its investment banking arm has performed very well, and is currently the leading underwriter for IPOs.

The firm is a leading underwriter of stock offerings and fields one of the largest, most respected research teams on Wall Street.

Although it remained the leading underwriter, its market share fell to 42.7 percent, from 49 percent a year earlier.

The leading underwriter of new domestic securities offerings was Merrill Lynch, which was also ranked first last year.

Some analysts say it is inevitable that Citigroup, which has more money to lend to corporations than its competitors, will soon become the leading underwriter.